Sleep paralysis isn't scary they invented it to sell more horror.
Thats a generalization, i'll rephrase: Sleep Paralysis is scary! To most people! Presumably! Did you know that most people only ever have sleep paralysis once or twice in their entire life time? There's a small percentage of folk who have it on numerous occassions, and i happen to fit into that!
I started having sleep paralysis in September of 2023 and it has persisted since then. I've had my fair share of the hallucinations - auditory or visual. I can tell you without a SMIDGEN of a doubt however that ... it's not actually very frightening! In fact, i'd go as far as to say it's the funniest thing that's ever happeend to me!
Turns out i'm not in the majority when i say this though. Having spoken to two seperate therapists about it they were both pretty surprised when i told them that in the moment i find them more irritating than scary. Granted, I can't recall either of them having anecdotes about clients talking about similar, but i'd like to think that this being an uncommon reaction just adds a little more spice to it, y'know?
SOMETIMES THE ACTUAL NAME OF IT MISADVERTISES TOO. They call it sleep paralysis but that's not always the case! For sure you're MOSTLY not gonna be able to move. Your body is asleep, you're not gonna be able to do anything. But sometimes you can move your arm a little, or you can look around, or you can't look around! or you can't even see! On one occasion i full on attempted to stand up and sock the hallucination in the face and lost the fight. I lost a fist fight to something my mind made UP, but you'll get that story later on.
To an extent though, i do understand where the fear factor of sleep paralysis comes from. You can't move, for one, but the start of the episode makes your heart hurt, the same way it would if you were anxious. The first time i had it, i certainly was confused! I understood quickly what was happening, but i had next to know knowledge about it!
For future reference though, sleep paralysis lasts for only a minute or so, and it's completely harmless. Causes may range from problems sleeping (insomnia, narcolepsy, etc) to stemming from mental conditions (panic disorder, anxiety, PTSD).